If Patrick Ewing wants the ball so much, Jeff Van Gundy had a solution to how he can get it more: grab an offensive rebound or two.

How about five? Ewing led the rebounding barrage by hauling in 18 as the Knicks outboarded the Heat for the first time in the series, 46-41. He hauled in five offensive rebounds that he converted into six of his 16 points. The Knicks’ rebounding supremacy must continue today in Game 7 or summer vacation will arrive.

“I thought everybody got in there and rebounded,” said Ewing, who didn’t have a single offensive board in Game 5. “They were beating us in the series on a lot of long rebounds. The guards did a better job of those.”

Van Gundy again went on at length about the team’s horrendous rebounding – a season-long problem that’s grown worse and was ready to become their season-ending epitaph. They were outrebounded by 40 in the first five games.

The Knicks responded in a big way crashing the glass in Game 6. Latrell Sprewell added nine rebounds and Allan Houston chipped in five. Both have been faulted for their lack of rebounding in the series while the Heat’s perimeter players have been chewing glass.

Van Gundy made a point of saying before the game that Miami guards Dan Majerle and Anthony Carter would rank second and third on the Knicks in rebounding totals.

Both Ewing and Marcus Camby each had big offensive boards down the stretch. Ewing jammed home a Chris Childs miss with 1:57 left.

“I think we made a conscious effort to block people out and not let them get a free run at the rim when the shot went up,” Houston said. “If the shot was missed, we wanted to make sure that we at least put a body on someone to give ourselves a chance. That was a huge key to our comeback because a lot of our points during the comeback came in transition.”

“Down the stretch, they got two huge offensive rebounds that made the difference,” Alonzo Mourning said. “We got a little bit complacent and stopped doing the things we needed to get the lead.”

Game 7s haven’t been kind to the Knicks recently. They’ve lost their last three Game 7s – to the Rockets in the 1994 finals, the Pacers in the ’95 second round and the Heat in the ’97 second round. The Knicks have beaten the Heat two straight years in Game 5s … The Knicks’ last Game 7 win was over the Pacers in the ’94 conference finals.

P.J. Brown was held down considerably in Game 6. Hurt by foul trouble, he didn’t score, missing all three of his shots, and grabbed only five rebounds. Brown had hurt the Knicks particularly on the boards in the first five games.